Love
by Mizou32
Summary: Well my summary won't be very good but I basically wrote this because I love Emison and I hope that the show will finally move forward with the relationship. This is based off the prompt I received from alymcnabb16. Hope you enjoy!


**Hello all. I have been on vacation for the last week and a half so that is why it has taken me so long to post this story. I wrote this story based on the prompt I received from alymcnabb16. I hope that it matches the prompt I was given and I can't wait for the feedback. Thank you.**

 **-Miley**

We had all literally been here for hours. It was my house and right now I wanted nothing more than to shout at everyone to get out. I refrained though because of the important nature of this particular gathering.

Everyone was here; Aria, Ezra, Hanna, Caleb, Spencer, Toby, and Emily. We had decided to have a meeting, bringing all of our "evidence" together and all of our combined brains to figure out who A was.

So far, we had been striking out.

I was at a point in the night where if someone breathed too loudly it was pissing me off and right now Caleb, Aria, Spencer were huddled around a small piece of paper whispering intently.

I would be lying if I said I tried not to eavesdrop.

"But it had Ali's name on it." I heard Caleb whisper this is Spencer and Aria.

"I'm pretty sure Emily does not want her to have this." Spencer shot back.

Now I was really drawn in and it seemed I was not the only one. Ezra, Hanna, and Toby began to walk closer to the small group and I pretended to be completely focused on something else completely random I had picked from the pile.

I did look up and notice that Emily had gone missing. She must have gone to the bathroom or something. I was sure if she had been here she would have been in the same little group whispering as well.

Their bodies formed a shell and I could no longer make out what they were whispering about but the sound had gotten on my nerves. I stood up abruptly and shoved my way into their circle.

Toby was now holding the paper and I grabbed it out of his hands.

"Okay, what is this?"

"Ali no." Hanna had said this and I looked up at her to stare her down.

"Ali, that's from a long time ago, I don't think it matters anymore and I don't think Emily ever wanted you to see it. Not really at least." Aria said this, trying to explain it away.

"Why is it that you all seem to know what this is and I am left in the dark?"

"Left in the dark about what?" Emily asked coming around from the hallway.

Those still standing in the circle just stared at her.

"What this letter is with my name on it. They said it's from you and that it's old."

I watched the color drain out of her usually tanned face. She glanced over to them for help but they seemed clueless as to what to do.

"I don't understand what the big deal is. Here I will even read it out loud."

"No Ali, please don't." Emily practically begged this but I ignored her.

"Ali -

You may not like to hear what I have to say, but I need to get something off my chest. You're not afraid of hurting me, so I wonder why I'm so afraid of hurting you."

I paused now understanding what it was she didn't want me to see.

I decided to read the rest to myself to spare myself any additional embarrassment that I was likely to suffer.

I am, but that's not enough of a reason not to tell you how I feel. So here goes...

Sometimes I feel so close to you, and then something changes, a look in your eyes, and I feel so stupid. It's like you can read every thought in my head, and you find it all so hilarious. Like after we kissed, and I thought it might happen again, and you just laughed in my face. But it's not hilarious to me. Maybe you think a kiss is just a kiss, and that I'm just practice. But the way you act, it feels more like target practice.

I don't know how you can go from kissing me one minute to hating me the next, except that I'm starting to catch on. I'm starting to understand what's it's like to love you one minute, and hate you the next. I'm not your plaything at least not anymore.

_Emily

I looked up and everyone's eyes were on me. I wanted to look over at Emily but I was not sure that I could manage it without breaking down.

I did eventually manage to look at her. I expected her to look embarrassed or shy, instead I found that she looked horribly angry.

"Is this what you wanted? You needed to know how I felt about you so badly that you couldn't just this once listen to me!"

She was practically shouting and in all the time I had known her I don't think I had ever seen her so angry.

I felt the few tears I had been managing to hold back escape.

"If I had known that you hated me this much I wouldn't have talked to you anymore." I felt defeated. She was my best friend, I loved her and now I find out she has been harboring secret hatred towards me for who knows how long. If she no longer felt like this why didn't she just rip up the letter? Why did she even bring it here in the first place? Did she want everyone to find out? It seemed as though the girls already knew about this though.

"Did you read the date?" Her voice was still loud but it had taken on a much softer tone.

I looked back down at the letter. It was dated August 29, 2009.

"So you have been hating me and not wanting to be around me since 2009, that's awesome." I said this really sarcastically.

I was no longer feeling crushed. I was angry.

"I guess sleeping with me was like a way to get back at me then?" This is where my mind first went. Yes it had been months but it wasn't as if we had ever talked about that whole thing.

Emily's face turned bright red and she looked down. I suddenly remembered that everyone was still here and a witness to our argument. Right now though I didn't care. I had assumed that she had at some point told the girls but judging by the looks on their faces that was most likely not true.

"I didn't realize how ashamed of me you were." I said it because I wanted to make her feel some of the pain that I did right now and I was hoping these words would work.

I kept waiting for her to say something, anything really. Defend herself, tell me she didn't hate, that she didn't regret our night together; all I got from her was silence and a blank expression.

The girls didn't seem to know what to do at this point either. They kept glancing between the two of us like something was going to happen.

Surprisingly the first voice that I heard was Spencer.

"Em, just tell her."

I looked back over at Emily.

"Tell me what?"

She still didn't say anything. She wasn't even looking anywhere or at anyone now. If I hadn't been so hurt and angry I most likely would have appreciated the fact that she seemed to be considering her words before speaking but right now I was just angry.

"I don't have time for this, I think you should all just leave."

I stared down then at the letter in my hands and after only a second worth of thought I ripped it in half and then again.

"Good."

I heard it but I wasn't sure who had said it. It was said so quietly that I was sure that I had either thought it or just whispered it to myself.

Then that same voice got louder, "I'm glad you did that."

"Now its gone and now it doesn't exist. I wrote that letter when we were 15 years old Ali. I didn't understand you and I sure as hell didn't understand the way that I felt. You knew you were hurting me and you liked to do it."

I was surprised that she was saying anything at all, let alone addressing the crap I put her through when we were younger.

"When you said you wanted to meet me when you were still on the run I was so nervous. The last time I has seen you I had been angry with you and ready to give you that letter. I realized though that I was still in love with you and the anger I was feeling came in second to how happy I was when I saw you. I spent 2 hours getting ready that night because there was still such a huge part of me that wanted to impress you and I wanted you to think that I was pretty. And Spencer she knew because I told her and then she saw how upset I was and when she took into account what I was wearing I am guessing that she just figured the rest out."

I was starting to regret yelling at her tonight, not enough that I felt like I would apologize any time soon but just enough to make me doubt what I had said.

"When you told me that your feelings for me weren't one sided I was so happy that I felt like I might cry. And then we spent that night together and I thought maybe this was my chance, our chance. I thought maybe we were just going to be the couple that took a long time to get it. You screwed it up and then I screwed it up and here we are, post prison and post dollhouse and you and I still can't get it together." She breathed in deeply and then sighed.

"When are you going to get that I am so in love with you. I would literally do anything for you. I have never hated you, but I think that I deserved to be angry for everything."

I was stunned; so stunned that I felt the edges of my vision start to blur. Any thought that I had before she had told me she loved me was gone.

I was looking into her eyes from across the room. She looked defeated. She must have wanted me to say something and I am sure that after my earlier yelling she expected it to be easy for me.

The letter fell from my hands. In that moment I knew I would not be able to think of anything to say to her and she deserved an answer or at least some kind of response.

I started out slowly and then I took two small steps towards her and then a few more.

She was looking down now and wouldn't meet my eyes.

My living room was not that big so I was over to her shortly.

Ideally it would be much better to be doing this without the audience but right now all I saw was her and nothing else mattered.

When I reached her I lifted my hand and forced her to look at me.

She was significantly taller than I was so I pushed myself onto my tiptoes and slowly leaned in to kiss her.

When my lips met hers I felt her shock.

This kiss was very chaste and I hoped that it conveyed my love for her and also how sorry I was for the way that I had treated her.

After a moment she responded to my kiss and her arms wrapped around my waist, which relieved some of pressure on my toes.

I in turn wound my fingers into her hair and pulled her a little closer to me.

Our kiss was slowly becoming more heated and apparently the others in the room felt so too.

"Get it Ali!" Hanna shouted at me.

I quickly separated from Emily and turned around to half glare at her.

Emily just blushed and twined her hands with one of mine that had dropped to my side.

"I think that's probably our cue to leave." Aria said.

One by one they all picked up their jackets and bags and made their way out the door.

Hanna was the last one to leave and as she walked out the door she turned and winked at the both of us. With a final parting she added, "Have fun you two."

If possible, Emily blushed even harder.

I resisted fully facing her even when I heard the door click shut. If I did that would mean that she would be looking for answers that I knew I didn't have and I was sure she didn't have them either.

"Ali?"

There went my moment to think.

I turned around and looked at her.

I decided to just go for it.

"Emily, I love you. I did back then and I do now, some things will never change. I understand if you are not willing to do this anymore. I put you through your own personal hell and that has got to be a factor in your decision."

I had done it. I had finally told her what I wanted to since the first time she had kissed me in the library.

"Lets make it simple then and just start over."

She extended a hand to me. Cautiously I reached up and took it.

"Hi, I'm Emily. I came over here because I happen to think you are the most beautiful girl in the world and it you aren't doing anything tomorrow I think we should go out."

She said it seriously and I just smiled and giggled at her.

"I would be delighted. Emily was it?" I joked with her.

She took the hand she was still holding and pulled me close to her.

"I love you Ali, this time we are going to make it work."

"I love you too."

This time she kissed me and there was no hesitation between either of us.

As we continued to kiss in the living room she lifted me a few inches off the ground and walked backwards until she landed on the couch pulling me on top of her.

She moved down and began to kiss along my collarbone and all over my neck.

"Em."

"Hmm?" She mumbled still kissing me.

"I want to do this right."

She pulled away from me and I saw confusion in her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that as good as this feels and as much as I want to, this is all the farther I think we should go right now."

"I get it, I was thinking the same thing. We can still make out though right?"

"I would accept nothing less."

"I was serious about taking you out tomorrow you know."

"Oh I know." I joked. On a more serious note I added, "Will you stay with me tonight? I hate being alone here."

"Of course I will, I will always be there for you."

I knew she meant it and I silently thanked my lucky stars that I had gotten so lucky. No one should get as many chances as she has given me and yet she was still here. She still loved me and I knew that I would spend the rest of my life wondering how that was possible.

I leaned in and pecked her lips before climbing off of her.

"Lets go to bed."

Emily fell asleep only minutes after we crawled into bed. She had me wrapped up in her arms so my head was resting on her chest. I took a minute to enjoy the contact and listen to her heartbeat and slow breathing. I felt sleep coming and for the first time in a long time I fell asleep completely happy.


End file.
